Along with the recent development of information and communication technology, various wireless communication technologies have been developed. Among them, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) enables wireless access to the Internet based on radio frequency technology through a portable terminal such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP) in a home, an office, or a specific service providing area.
The introduction of Wi-Fi Direct or Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (Wi-Fi P2P) is under discussion, as a direct communication technology that facilitates interconnection between devices without a wireless Access Point (AP) which is a basic requirement for a legacy WLAN system. According to Wi-Fi Direct, devices can be connected to each other without a complex establishment procedure and an operation for exchanging data at a communication rate offered by a general WLAN system can be supported to provide various services to users.
Recently, various Wi-Fi-enabled devices have been used. Among them, the number of Wi-Fi Direct-enabled devices which are Wi-Fi devices capable of communicating with each other without an AP is increasing. The Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) has been discussing the introduction of a platform supporting various services (e.g., Send, Play, Display, Print, etc.) using a Wi-Fi Direct link. This may be referred to as Wi-Fi Direct Service (WFDS). According to WFDS, applications, services, etc. can be controlled or managed by a service platform called Application Service Platform (ASP).
A standard on a wireless LAN (WLAN) technology is developing in IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) 802.11 group. IEEE 802.11a and b use an unlicensed band in 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz and IEEE 802.11b provides transmission speed of 11 Mbps, and IEEE 802.11a provides transmission speed of 54 Mbps. IEEE 802.11g provides transmission speed of 54 Mbps by applying OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) in 2.4 GHz. IEEE 802.11n provides transmission speed of 300 Mbps by applying MIMO-OFDM (Multiple Input Multiple Output-OFDM). IEEE 802.11n supports a channel bandwidth up to 40 MHz. In this case, IEEE 802.11n can provide transmission speed of 600 Mbps.
In WLAN environment according to IEEE 802.11e, a DLS (Direct Link Setup)-related protocol assumes that a BSS (Basic Service Set) corresponds to a QBSS (Quality BSS) supporting a QoS (Quality of Service). In the QBSS, not only a non-AP STA but also an AP corresponds to a QAP (Quality AP) that supports QoS. Yet, in a currently commercialized WLAN environment (e.g., WLAN environment according to IEEE 802.11a/b/g), although a non-AP STA corresponds to a QSTA (Quality STA) supporting QoS, most of APs correspond to a legacy AP incapable of supporting QoS. As a result, even a QSTA has a limit on using a DLS service in the currently commercialized WLAN environment.
A TDLS (Tunneled Direct Link Setup) corresponds to a wireless communication protocol newly proposed to overcome the aforementioned limit. Although the TDLS does not support QoS, the TDLS can make QSTAs establish a direct link in the currently commercialized WLAN environment such as IEE 802.11a/b/g and enable a direct link to be established in a PSM (power save mode). Hence, the TDLS regulates various procedures to make QSTAs establish a direct link in a BSS managed by a legacy AP as well. In the following, a wireless network supporting the TDLS is referred to as a TDLS wireless network.
A legacy wireless LAN mainly handles an operation of an infra structure BSS in which a wireless access point (AP) functions as a hub. An AP is in charge of a function of supporting a physical layer for establishing a wired/wireless connection, a function of routing devices in a network, a function of providing a service for adding/deleting a device to/from a network, and the like. In this case, the devices in the network are connected with each other via the AP and the devices are not directly connected with each other.
As a technology of supporting a direct connection between devices, discussion on establishing a standard for Wi-Fi Direct is in progress.
A Wi-Fi direct network corresponds to a network that Wi-Fi devices are able to perform D2D (Device to Device) (or P2P (Peer-to-Peer)) communication with each other although the Wi-Fi devices do not participate in a home network, an office network, and a hotspot network. The Wi-Fi direct network has been proposed by Wi-Fi Alliance. In the following, Wi-Fi Direct-based communication is referred to as Wi-Fi D2D communication (simply, D2D communication) or Wi-Fi P2P communication (simply, P2P communication). And, a device for performing the Wi-Fi P2P is referred to as a Wi-Fi P2P device, simply, a P2P device.
A WFDS network can include one or more Wi-Fi devices. A WFDS device includes devices supporting Wi-Fi such as a display device, a printer, a digital camera, a projector, a smartphone, and the like. And, the WFDS device includes a non-AP STA and an AP STA. WFDS devices belonging to a WI-DS network can be directly connected with each other. Specifically, P2P communication may indicate a case that a signal transmission path between two WFDS devices is directly configured between the WI-DS devices without passing through the third device (e.g., an AP) or a legacy network (e.g., accessing WLAN via an AP). In this case, the signal transmission path directly configured between the two WFDS devices can be restricted to a data transmission path. For example, the P2P communication may indicate a case that a plurality of non-STAs transmit data (e.g., voice/image/text message information, etc.) without passing through an AP. A signal transmission path for control information (e.g., resource allocation information for P2P configuration, wireless device identification information, etc.) can be directly configured between WFDS devices (e.g., between a non-AP STA and a non-AP STA, between a non-AP STA and an AP), can be configured between two devices (e.g., between a non-AP STA and a non-AP STA) via an AP, or can be configured between an AP and a corresponding WFDS device (e.g., between an AP and a non-AP STA #1, between an AP and a non-AP STA #2).
Wi-Fi Direct corresponds to a network connection standard technology for defining up to an operation of a link layer. Since a standard on an application, which is operating in a higher layer of a link configured by the Wi-Fi Direct, is not defined, when an application is executed after devices supporting the Wi-Fi Direct are connected with each other, it was difficult to support compatibility. In order to solve the aforementioned problem, discussion on standardizing such a higher layer application as a Wi-Fi direct service (WFDS) is in progress in Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA).
FIG. 1 illustrates components of a WFDS (Wi-Fi Direct Service) framework.
Referring to FIG. 3, a Wi-Fi Direct layer is a MAC layer defined by the Wi-Fi Direct standard. The Wi-Fi Direct layer may include software compatible with the Wi-Fi Direct standard. A wireless connection may be configured by a PHY layer (not shown) compatible with the Wi-Fi PHY layer, under the Wi-Fi Direct layer. A platform called Application Service Platform (APS) is defined above the Wi-Fi Direct layer.
The ASP is a common shared platform and performs session management, service command processing, and control and security between ASPs between its overlying Application layer and its underlying Wi-Fi Direct layer.
A Service layer is defined above the ASP. The Service layer includes use case-specific services. The WFA defines four basic services, Send, Play, Display, and Print. Also, an Enable Application Program Interface (API) is defined to use an ASP common platform when a third party application other than the basic services is supported.
While Send, Play, Display, Print, or services defined by third party applications are shown in FIG. 1 as exemplary services, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the term “service” may mean any of services supporting Wi-Fi Serial Bus (WSB), Wi-Fi Docking, or Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN), in addition to Send, Play, Display, Print, or the services defined by the third party applications.
Send is a service and application that can perform file transfer between two WFDS devices. Play is a service and application that enable sharing or streaming of Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNS)-based Audio/Video (A/V), photos, music, etc. between two WFDS devices. Print is a service and application that enable output of text and photos between a device having content such as text, photos, etc. and a printer. Display is a service and application that enable screen sharing between a Miracast source and a Miracast sink of the WFA.
The Application layer may provide a User Interface (UI), represent information as a human-perceivable form, and provide a user input to a lower layer.